


That Guy

by hunters_retreat



Category: Die Hard 4, Supernatural, Supernatural/DIe Hard 4
Genre: Crossover, Incest, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-15
Updated: 2015-09-15
Packaged: 2018-04-20 21:54:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4803626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hunters_retreat/pseuds/hunters_retreat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam and Dean Winchester were after another shape shifter, something neither brother was too happy about.  Dean hated them on principle and Sam could never get rid of the image of his brother’s body lying dead on the floor, even if it hadn’t been his brother.</p><p>Everything was going according to plan though until the shape shifter decided take on his next target; one Matt Farrell, computer hacker extraordinaire, and who happened to have his very own bad ass to call when things went bump in the night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That Guy

**Author's Note:**

> I originally decided to write something in the Die Hard fandom for mass_hypgnosis, who i'm sure has forgotten all about my promise to write her something. Well.. here it is... even if it is late :P  Also, a huge thanks to [](http://chosenfire28.livejournal.com/profile)[chosenfire28](http://chosenfire28.livejournal.com/) for the awesome art and icons!  *hugs*

 

  

 

 

"I'm not crazy." He said, peering through the blinds to see if he could make out anything on the sidewalk below.  He pressed the phone to his ear with his other hand as his gaze fell on the empty street.  
  
"I didn’t say you were."  Matt Farrell didn’t need to see the other man to picture the eye roll that went with the reassurance .  
  
"What happened last time I had a bad feeling McClane?"  
  
"Matt-"  
  
"A fire sale?” He asked with a slight pause.  “You don't say! Someone tried to kill me? Oh yeah I almost forgot about that, the part where I got shot.   And the part where I had to watch you shoot yourself.  Or where I killed a man to save Lucy."  
  
McClane sighed. "Alright, alright, Jesus. I'll come over and check things out."  
  
Matt relaxed a little at the words. He didn't know if he was being paranoid or not but the fact that McClane was willing to take him seriously meant something. He didn't really know how his brain equated John McClane with safety, not when their initial meeting involved McClane taking him into all sorts of danger, but he’d brought him out alive and Matt couldn't remember anything that had ever made him feel as secure as the older man.  
  
"Matt?"  
  
"Yeah, I'm here."  
  
"Just hang tight kid. I'm already out the door."  
  
He smiled because that meant McClane had been getting himself ready as soon as he’d mentioned it, no matter that he’d made him defend his unease.  "Thanks McClane."  
  
  
"All clear."  
  
Matt stared through the small slit allowed by the chain on his door, letting out a relieved breath at McClane’s words.  He gave the detective a small smile before he closed the door and undid the security lock on the top. He opened the door and stepped back as the older man pushed past, checking the inside of his apartment. He didn't draw his gun but Matt could see that McClane was taking it seriously from the way he held his body. He went through each room before coming back out to the living room and looking out the blinds the way Matt had been all night.  
  
"Am I paranoid?"  
  
"Maybe."   
  
"Great." He said with a sigh. "So I wasted your evening for nothing."  
  
McClane smiled at him, that crooked smile that meant mischief. "Don't know about that." His hand came up, his finger catching in the belt loop of Matt's jeans, pulling him close. "Maybe I was looking for a reason to come see you."  
  
"Oh yeah?" He looked down for a second, still taken aback when McClane said things like that. He'd never expected to see McClane after they'd managed to avert a nationwide disaster.  The fire sale would have destroyed the US as they knew it and it had only been McClane’s quick thinking and Matt’s know how that had stopped it all. He thought McClane would have hated the sight of him by the time they’d finished with the cops and lawyers and NSA interviews, and maybe he had.   Matt had started a brief, ill-fated relationship with his daughter Lucy before she'd been smart enough to call him on his hero-worship of her father. After that she did her damndest to get the two of them together. McClane might be a stubborn bastard but he had nothing on Luce. Matt was grateful of it most days and slightly scared of it some days as well; the way she'd threatened him if he hurt her Dad, like McClane wasn't some sort of indestructible hero that could crush Matt if he wanted. Not surprisingly McClane had given him the same lecture. He was pretty sure he was more afraid of Luce.  
  
“You’ve been pretty busy lately. Lucy tried to explain what you were doing."  
  
"And?"  
  
"You don't really expect me to remember all that technical mumbo jumbo do you?"  
  
"One of these days McClane, you’ll surprise us all and remember."  
  
"Maybe. Guess you'll have to keep me around for a while to find out."  
  
Matt laughed lightly as he let McClane pull his lips a breath away from his. "I plan on it."  
  
McClane’s lips pressed against his, stealing his breath, his heart beating wildly as his lover's touch made him forget all about work and codes and strange figures following him in the dark.  
  
  
  
“Matt?”   
  
He heard the front door open and it only took a few minutes before she yelled again.  “Matt?”  He heard Lucy setting her bag by the front door and he smiled as he leaned back against the counter in the kitchen, drinking his coffee.  
  
“Matt!  I know you’re h-” She walked through the kitchen door and stopped as she saw him standing there.  “here.  Why didn’t you answer?”  
  
“I thought I’d see if you were gonna make yourself hoarse after you broke into my place again.”  
  
“Ha ha.  I didn’t break in.”  
  
“I didn’t give you a key.”  
  
“I know where the extra is.  Not my fault if you didn’t move it.”  
  
Matt rolled his eyes, but Lucy came over and kissed his cheek as she stole his coffee mug.  She got one sip out of it before the mug disappeared from her hands as well.  She jumped, her eyes wide in shock as the other man finished off the coffee.     
  
“John!”  She smacked him hard against the chest and Matt hid his smile by turning around to get two mugs down.  He poured two, both black and far too strong for his tastes, before he turned around.  
  
“Did I hear you were breaking and entering?”  
  
“Gonna call the cops on me?”  
  
“Maybe.”  McClane looked over Lucy’s shoulder and smiled at him.  “You sure it’s not Lucy stalking you?”  
  
Matt handed both mugs off and took his own back.  “Pretty sure I’d notice.  Lucy isn’t that quiet.”  
  
Lucy took the offered mug and sniffed it.  “This isn’t the watered down version you were drinking is it?”  
  
“If you’d get your own instead of stealing mine you wouldn’t have to worry about that.”  
  
“Your coffee is always watered down.”  
  
“Not when I make it.”  McClane answered for Matt.   
  
Matt just rolled his eyes, all too familiar with the banter between father and daughter.  Lucy Gennaro might be hot as hell, but she was far too much like her father for Matt’s taste.  Mostly, because Matt’s tastes ran to her father these days, much to Lucy’s delight.   
  
Lucy took a drink of her coffee and Matt watched her eyes tighten before a delighted smirk pulled at her lips.  “Oh my god, you two were in the shower.”  
  
He could feel his face heating up and he looked down because not only was it embarrassing to be caught after the fact by his lover’s daughter, but because she’d tease him mercilessly about blushing over it.  
  
“Great detective skills there Luce.”  McClane said with a shake of his head.  “Was it the wet hair that gave it away?”  
  
“No.” She said, pinning her father with the evil eye.  “The towels on the back of the kitchen chair.”  She smiled sweetly at Matt, throwing an arm around his shoulder and whispering in his ear.  “Did he scrub your back good Matt?”  
  
“Luce.”  McClane’s voice was hard and Matt could see the annoyance that his daughter routinely brought out in him.  
  
“What?  Just wanted to make sure my best friend is getting treated right.”  
  
“Come ten minutes earlier and you could have heard just how well he was being treated.”  
  
McClane walked out as he was saying it, grabbing the towels as he went.  Matt rolled his eyes, trying to keep out of the middle of it but Lucy looked at him, the same smile still on her lips.   
  
“Really Luce?  This is how you decided to start the morning?  By pissing your father off?”  
  
“No, I came to see you.  Pissing him off was just a bonus.”  
  
He heard the front door slam and cursed.  “God damn it Lucy.  Just once can you not ruin my morning?”  
  
“What?  Matt, I was only teasing.”  
  
“Yeah, because McClane doesn’t have enough issues without adding to it.”  
  
“Matt, seriously,” she grabbed his arm and he stopped.  “I didn’t mean anything.  It’s just…”  
  
“I know.  Luce, I know.”  And he did.  Lucy and McClane were just too much alike to get along, both brash, ballsy, and neither willing to back down from anything.  Years of fighting had left them too used to the bickering and though they tried to get along for Matt it was rarely easy.   
  
Matt and Lucy got along just fine.  She was witty in a snarky kind of way and she made him laugh at the absurdity of things.  McClane was sarcastic as hell, but after everything they’d been through together, Matt saw a calmer side of him.  He still wasn’t sure how trying to date Lucy had ended up with his involvement with McClane, but Matt couldn’t remember a time when he’d been happier.  Minus the fighting between father and daughter.  
  
“I gotta go.”  Matt said, realizing he knew exactly where McClane would be.  
  
“He’s a big boy Matt, let him have his tantrum.”  
  
Matt closed his eyes as he set the mug on the counter.  “Go to class Lucy.  I know you don’t get it.  You don’t get him, but what you think means a lot to him.  When you tease him, every time you tease him about us, I lose a little bit of him.     We’ve got enough stacked against us.  I don’t need to have to fight you for him too.”  
  
She looked horrified at the idea, but it wasn’t enough.  As much as he loved Lucy, he didn’t think there was ever going to be a time when Lucy and McClane got along for more than a few minutes unsupervised.  
  
“I don’t… Matt… I don’t have a problem with you two.”  
  
“I know Lucy.  So does he, it just doesn’t help.  Go to class or stay, I don’t care, but I’m going to go after McClane.”  
  
He didn’t wait for an answer.  Instead he went to his room and changed from his sweats to jeans and a tee shirt.  He threw on his converse and headed towards the door.  Lucy was waiting with his jacket on her arm.  She kissed his cheek again, smiling softly at him in a way that reminded him why she still knew where his spare key was.  Lucy was almost as charming as her dad.  
  
“Thanks Luce.  See you later, okay?”  
  
“Yeah.” She said as she watched him walk out the door.  “And Matt, tell him I’m sorry, okay?”  He gave her a tight lipped smile, and then disappeared out the door and down the hall.   
  
  
The coffee shop was only a block away and Matt was surprised to see McClane still at the counter, ordering his daily supply of sludge.  It was a morning ritual they had, not something that happened every day but something they did whenever McClane was able to stay the night.   
Matt slipped in the door and he could hear his lover talking to the cashier.  “So, you didn’t see anything out of the ordinary last night?”  
  
“Nah.  Just the regulars.  No one out of the ordinary, at least not that I noticed.”  
  
“Thanks.”  McClane said, grabbing the two cups in front of him.   He paused as he turned, spotting Matt in the doorway.  
  
Matt smiled, nodding towards a booth at the back and McClane made his way to it.  When he slid in on one side, Matt moved across from him, taking the cup John offered him.   
  
“Lucy go to class?”  
  
“Probably.  She was still nursing her coffee when I left.”  
  
“Matt, I’m-”  
  
“Don’t McClane.  She apologized and asked me to pass it along to you.  I don’t need you to apologize for her.”  
  
“She’s just-“  
  
“Like you.  Don’t.  I know who Lucy is; you don’t have to defend her.”  
  
“Maybe I’m trying to apologize for myself.”  
  
“Well that would be a first.”  He gave a small huff of laughter and watched McClane’s lips turn up slightly.   
  
“Yeah, well, we all gotta try something new from time to time.”  Matt shook his head as he took a drink of his coffee, grateful that John remembered the way he liked it.  Not that he doubted it.  John could be all kinds of crazy to deal with but he always remembered things like that.   
  
“I talked to the cashier.”  McClane said as he sat his own tar black coffee on the table.  “No one saw anything unusual last night.  Whatever it was you saw, no one else noticed anything weird.”  
  
“So we’re back to me being crazy.”  
  
“I didn’t say that.”  
  
“Cause you know what happened the last time I felt like someone was watching me?”  McClane rolled his eyes and Matt took it as permission to continue.  “A fire sale.  People tried to kill me.”  
  
“Are we ever going to have a day where that doesn’t come up?”  
  
“Probably not.  Things like getting shot and killing a person tend to implant themselves into my head pretty firmly.”  
  
“Hey, it wasn’t a piece of cake for me either.”  
  
Matt smiled as he looked at his hands because no, it hadn’t been easy for either of them, but as much as he could wish he hadn’t lived through it, he’d take it all over again if it meant meeting his lover.   
  
“Yeah, well you killed that copter.  That was pretty cool.”  McClane’s coffee stopped half way to his lips as Matt continued.  “Taking out the asian chick was pretty hot too.  Once you get past the gun and the cars falling all around you in the elevator shaft.”  
  
“Yeah.  Didn’t I tell you then?  It was hot.”  
  
“Yeah, “ Matt said, looking up through his long hair at the other man.  “I noticed it then too.”

 

**

“You sure this is our sort of thing Sam?”  Dean asked as they settled into the motel.  
   
Sam didn’t bother with a sigh as he threw his bag on the bed furthest in.  “It could be and since nothing else is showing up on the radar right now, we might as well check it out.”  
  
Dean stretched his arms up into the air before throwing himself on the nearest bed.  “You know what I could use?”  
  
“A beer?  A blond?  A trip to the local psych ward?  Honestly, I can’t even begin to answer that,” Sam said as he plugged his laptop into the wall and began searching for a wireless network to hack into.  
  
“One of those vibrating beds.”  
  
“Dean-”  
  
“Seriously Sammy, all those hours spent driving because you promised Ash we’d check out some hacker’s death?”  
  
Sam rubbed at his forehead.  He knew how his brother was.  Nothing was going to stop him from irritating the shit out of Sam tonight.  “Ash knew the guy Dean.  He said he wouldn’t have killed anyone, let alone tortured them before killing them and himself.  Besides, you saw the video yourself, you saw the camera flare.  We might have a shifter.”   
  
Sam thought about running out to finding a coffee shop but they were low on funds at the moment and he didn’t want to splurge on extras until they had a little more cash in hand.  He thought about offering to go out and hustle, but Dean was looking a little on the pale side and Sam was still concerned about how hard he’d been thrown the week before.  He hadn’t been resting well either, sleeping on his back to keep from aggravating it.  For a few more nights anyway, Sam wanted to keep Dean close, not throw him into a fist fight head on.  And with Dean’s mood tonight that was exactly where they would end up.  
  
“Unless,” he nearly jumped at the sound of Dean’s voice coming from just behind his ear.  His brother’s lips hovered just over the skin of his neck and he could feel the warm breath.  “You’re willing to offer up those hands for the night?”  
  
Sam steadied his breath because he could imagine what Dean would be like under his hands, the way his brother would shift and sigh and leave Sam hard and wanting.   
  
“I deserve a good rub down, don’t I Sammy?”  
  
Sam wanted to groan but it would just let Dean know how bad he was getting to him already.  Instead Sam closed his eyes and licked his lips, “Dean, get on the bed and if you’re quiet for a few minutes, I’ll give you a massage.”  
  
He felt the soft press of lips against his neck and then Dean was gone, like he’d never been there.    Sam held his grin in check because Dean didn’t need to know how pleased he was at the small sign of affection, but there was no denying he was.  Their relationship wasn’t really about those things, but Sam missed them anyway, the gestures that he’d had with Jess.  He couldn’t walk hand in hand with his brother, and he wouldn’t anyway.  Dean wasn’t that type of person.  Dean made up with it in other ways though, like the way he always knew when Sam needed to stretch his legs when they were driving and how Dean always knew when to get the extra shot of espresso or the decaf.  He knew how to push all of Sam’s buttons and yet he knew how to sooth them as well.   
  
He heard Dean moving on the bed but he didn’t turn around.  He knew what he’d find there.  Instead he started pulling up the information he already had and started looking for anything new.   
  
He didn’t get more than fifteen minutes into his research before he turned to check on Dean.  He knew it was a mistake before he did it, but he couldn’t help himself.  Dean was being exceptionally quiet and Dean was the epitome of mischief when he was quiet.  He let his eyes rake over the naked body on the bed, taking his time since Dean had put himself on display so nicely.  He was lying with his head pressed into his arms, freckled shoulders giving way to narrow hips and a firm ass that had Sam half hard just looking.   
  
Dean had always been attractive, had always cultivated the bad boy look to take away some of the beauty of his features, but there was nothing in the world more addictive to Sam than his brother’s back, stretched out and naked as he waited.   
  
He was standing up before he realized he’d decided.  When he reached the bed he could see the warming oil already set out on the nightstand.  Sam pulled his shirt off and hit the first light switch, leaving only the bathroom light to see by.  He dropped his pants and briefs on the way back to the bed.  The only sound Dean made when Sam straddled his thighs was a soft moan.  
  
“Ready for that rub down?”  
  
“Yeah Sammy.”  His voice was barely a whisper but Sam could hear the darkness in it, the hunger.  He reached for the oil and spread it out on his palms, letting it heat up before placing his hands on his brother’s body.  
  
He worked the oil in, letting the feel of his skin sink into his body, the way Dean moved into his hands and the way his body flushed as he worked over tired, aching muscles.  He worked out the knots in Dean’s shoulders first knowing that once he started moving lower he wouldn’t get too far.  He never did.  As soon as the knots were out he moved over Dean’s spine and couldn’t help but leave small kisses in his wake.  Small kisses led to small bites and then Dean was being opened on his brother’s fingers, his brother’s tongue.  Sam slid into his body with ease and when they both reached climax Dean’s body was lethargic and so relaxed Sam didn’t think he’d move all night.  
“Night Dean.”  Sam whispered into his brother’s hair as he wrapped himself around the older man.   
  
Dean let out a small huff, biting at Sam’s neck.  “Night Sam boy.”  
  
As much as Sam had intended to get back up after he made sure his brother got to sleep early, he was far too comfortable to move.  It wasn’t until much later that his research into the possible hunt was picked up again.   
  
  
  
Matt stared at the computer screen, ignoring McClane.  Having the other man there gave him a certain feeling of security, but nothing could make him feel better about what he was seeing.   
  
“Turn it off Matt.”  
  
“McClane.”  
  
“Turn it off.  You don’t need to see it again.”  
  
McClane’s voice was soft as he said it and Matt responded to that faster than he did the initial command.  “He couldn’t have done that.”  He said, letting his head fall onto his hands, still resting on the keyboard.  “I know him.”  
  
“We never really know people kid.”  
  
Matt knew McClane was trying to make him feel better but that was always a two edged sword with the detective.  He said what he thought, what he felt, and after more than thirty years with the NYPD it was mostly jaded.  One failed marriage and a string of bad relationships after that didn’t help.   
  
Sometimes though, McClane was more than that.    He could still remember the first time McClane had taken care of him, standing inside a police station with the first stage of the fire sale happening all around them.  He’d been in shock, the edges of panic creeping in when McClane had dropped his hand to the small of Matt’s back and ushered him out, taking him away from the screaming and the congestion.  It hadn’t been a lot, but the touch of his hand had been enough.  
  
McClane’s hand gripped his shoulder tightly for a second, then released as if he knew what Matt was thinking.  Matt closed his eyes, the last scene from the video playing itself over again in his mind.  He’d known Barry Miller for years, first through online connections and then in person when he’d moved into the city.  They made sure to hang out at least once a week since then.  The last two months though Miller had been distracted.  He kept saying someone was following him, that his normal contacts were acting up.  McClane said it was paranoia, but Matt had known him a long time.  He wasn’t the type to jump to conclusions.  
  
And no matter what the video said, he wasn’t the type to kill himself, or to torture someone beforehand.  The video wasn’t a fake, but it wasn’t right either.  
  
“It can’t be him McClane.  He’d never hurt anyone.  He was a pacifist.”  
  
He turned to look up at the other man then, almost afraid to see the cop in him.  
  
“Matt,” McClane shook his head but there was something in his eyes that made Matt’s breath catch in his throat.  “Look, I’ll see what I can find out, okay?  I’ll talk to the detective in charge, but I don’t know what they’ll have to say.  It looks pretty open and shut.”  
  
“Yeah… okay.  Thanks.”  
  
“Come on.”  McClane said, offering him a hand up.  “Least I can do tonight is take you to dinner.  I happen to know that the best diner in town is just a few blocks away.”  
  
Matt smiled at that.  “It’s a whole in the wall.”  
  
“But you love the milkshakes.”  
  
Matt laughed because he was right.  “Yeah I do.”  
  
  
McClane lead the way out of the apartment and as Matt locked the door and turned away, he felt the other man’s hand drop to his back.  He wanted to lean back into it, knowing that McClane would be there to steady him, to feel his warmth, but he couldn’t.  He wasn’t as strong as McClane and he didn’t pretend to be, but he had his pride.  Instead he pushed his hands into his jean pockets to fight off the evening chill as they walked the two blocks to the diner McClane had in mind.  
  
The place was busy with loud patrons and a louder wait staff as they settled into a booth towards the back.  McClane took the far seat in the booth and Matt understood his desire to keep his back covered, even if he did think the detective was reliving old spy movies in his head.   
  
The waitress brought their menus over and left with a promise to be back with McClane’s coffee.  Matt just stared into his water, his mind still caught in the video.  Miller had actually videotaped himself torturing his long term girlfriend.  A few minutes after he was gone from the screen, there was the sound of gunfire off screen.  When the police had arrived at his home to check out the noise, they’d found him dead on the floor.  It didn’t make sense.  None of it made sense.    
  
McClane stiffened and Matt looked to see what had his lover worked up.  He had a moment’s shock at the two men who were approaching their booth, intent on them.  The first shock was the first man’s eyes, green as jades and smiling with a grin that he knew could charm any woman he wanted to.  That shock was quickly overridden by the height of the second man, well over six foot, but with a look in his eyes that was warm and caring.   
  
“Hi, are you Matt?”  The tall one asked.  
  
“Who’s asking?”  McClane shot out before he could answer for himself.  
  
The tall guy looked askance of Matt before turning his attention to McClane but the other guy gave him his immediate attention, shoulder’s squared and with a certain stance that reminding him too much of his lover when he was about to get into a fight.   
  
“I’m A-”  
  
“Sam.”  The tall guy said, with a nod to McClane before turning back to Matt.  “And this is Dean.  I’m sorry to bother you.  We were talking to a friend of Barry Miller’s and he pointed you out in a picture.”  
  
“Um… yeah.  So, you knew Barry?”  
  
“A friend of a friend actually but Ash said that there was no way Barry did this and we agreed to stop by and take a look at things.  You mind if we ask you a few questions?”  
  
“You cops?”  McClane asked as he looked at the two.  
  
“McClane,” Matt tried to reel in his lover’s protective nature but he didn’t have much faith in it.  
  
“Do I look like a cop?”  Dean threw the words back.   
  
“Dean.”  
  
 There was a warning in that voice and Matt wondered who the hell they were.  But still, if someone else had the same worries about Barry that he did, maybe it could mean something.  “I don’t mind answering questions, but I’m not sure I can be of any help.”  
  
Sam smiled at him and Matt didn’t try to stop himself from smiling back.  “So, what do you think about the whole thing?  Was Ash wrong about this?  Was Barry really capable of the things on that video?”  
  
McClane rolled his eyes but Matt just shook his head, ignoring him for a few minutes.  “I don’t know.  I mean… man… Barry… he was a good guy.  He didn’t mess with people.  He was the kind of guy you could log in and talk to at three am when you didn’t know what the hell was going wrong with your work.  He just… helped people out.  He was making up for a lot of stupid shit in his past, but that was a long time ago.  He wasn’t the type of person that would hurt other people.  And he wasn’t the kind of guy to kill himself like that either.”  
  
“But…”  Sam’s words were more a question than anything else, like he knew Matt was hesitant.   
  
“The video is real.  No one doctored that.”  He said burying his hands in his head for a moment.  “Which means he must have done it, right?”  
  
Sam shrugged.  “I don’t know.  That’s why we’re asking questions.”  
  
“At least someone is.”  
  
Sam smiled sympathetically as Dean walked over to the counter.  “Yeah, Ash didn’t feel like the cops were doing much.  You’re not the only one that thinks it’s odd.  If you think of anything, if he was acting weird or seen with people he didn’t normally hang out with, I’d appreciate if you could give me a call?”  
  
Dean walked over and handed Sam a business card.  The front was crossed off and Dean had written their names and a phone number on the back.  Sam handed it to him with another sad smile.   
  
“Yeah, of course.  And thanks man, for looking into this.”  
  
They nodded and Matt watched as they walked out, before turning back to his coffee and his thoughts.   
  
  
“Hey!”  
  
Dean and Sam both stopped outside the diner as they heard the other man’s voice.   Sam wasn’t surprised to find themselves face to face with Matt’s friend.  The guy had the quiet, dangerous air about him that made Sam think he was military, the kind of guy who threw himself into the front lines again and again and never stopped until he had what he needed.  It was why he’d stopped Dean before introducing them with their aliases and gone with the simple first names.   
  
“What the hell do you two think you’re doing?”  The guy asked.  
  
“Um, walking to our car,” Dean answered.  
  
“Yeah, I got that smart ass.  Back there,” the guy said, nodding back towards the diner.  “Why are you interested in Miller’s death?”  
“It’s just like I said.  A friend of ours knew him and asked if we’d come ask some questions.”  
  
“You mean interfere with a police investigation?”  
  
Sam shook his head quickly.  “No, of course not,” he said as he realized what the vibe he’d been getting earlier had been.  McClane was a cop.  “We’re just trying to get some pieces of the puzzle for a friend who doesn’t believe it.  But, there’d have to be a case to interfere with anyway.  They’ve already closed this investigation.”  
  
“You don’t think they should?”  McClane asked.  “I’ve seen the video and it’s a pretty open and shut case.”  
  
Dean snorted.  “And you don’t find it at all odd that the guy took the time to torture the girl in front of the camera, then walked off during his finale, to shoot himself in the sidelines?”  
  
Sam wanted to kick his brother because it would be a lot easier for them if the cops weren’t involved, but instead he just looked at McClane.  
“I didn’t say I’d have closed the case kid, but you trying to say this great Barry Miller who never hurt anyone tortured that girl for some other reason?”  
  
Sam couldn’t help himself.  “We don’t know.  Who knows if there was anyone else there with him?  Was he being blackmailed?  Was there a gun pointing at him the whole time?  There doesn’t seem to be any motive to this.”  
  
“There rarely are in crimes of passion.”  
  
“That what you’d call this?”  Dean challenged.  
  
The other guy shook his head as he looked back down to the dinner.  “No,” he said softly.  “I call it murder but Matt’s convinced the guy was innocent.”  
  
“So why aren’t you investigating it?”  Dean asked.  
  
“Not my Precinct kid.”   
  
Dean nodded and Sam could tell from his brother’s reaction that he wasn’t surprised McClane was a cop.   
  
“But I don’t want to hear that the two of you are causing any trouble.  You might think you’re just asking questions, but that kid in there just lost a friend.  He doesn’t need you poking your nose into his grief.”  
  
“We’re just trying to find the truth, nothing else.”  Sam answered fervently.  It wasn’t like they’d ever be able to tell Matt Farrell what the truth was anyway.  The guy was always going to have that final image of his friend, covered in blood before he stopped to look at the camera.  
  
The guy walked away with no more words and Sam just shook his head.  “Let’s stay clear of Farrell,” he said to Dean.  
  
Dean laughed.  “Yeah Sammy, I’m not sure if that was police jurisdiction crap or something else, but we’ll leave the kid alone.”  
  
“Something else?”  
  
Dean gave him an unreadable look and then just smiled as he wrapped an arm around his shoulders.   “I think the cop was more concerned with your shoulder span than your investigative techniques.”  
  
“Dean,”  
  
“Lovers, Sam.  The whole time you were talking to Farrell the guy was watching him for a reaction. “  
  
“Wow, I wouldn’t have thought…”  
  
“Think we might need to investigate Farrell a little more.  I plan on staying away, but it wouldn’t hurt to know who that McClane guy is and why his bulldog is so protective.”  
  
  
  
“Huh,” Sam said as he stared at the computer screen.  Dean was sitting on the other side of Sam, his gun already cleaned and well oiled as he worked on Sam’s.  The rest of their weapons had been cleaned after the last big hunt but Dean was meticulous about making sure the hand guns they always carried were ready should they be needed.  Especially when Sam kept smacking his hands away when Dean tried to find something a little more fun to play with.  Sam knew Dean was just doing it to mess with him because if Dean really wanted to get laid he had much better ways at getting Sam’s attention.  
  
“What?”  Dean asked without looking up.   
  
“Farrell.  He does online security, same as Barry Marshall.”  
  
“Yeah, we already knew that.”  
  
“Looks like they were working together.”  
  
Dean took interest then.  “Thought they were both the loner types?”  
  
“They are.  Marshall was working for one company and Farrell another.  Only they’re both working on the same project.  It was a joint venture put together by Morrik Enterprises, a way to help clean up the streets.  They’re working in conjuncture with the police department for a gun buy back.”  He looked up at his brother and saw the concern, but not the understanding.  Dean could do research with the best of the hunters out there, but he wasn’t a hacker.  He didn’t understand what a hacker could really do.  
  
“If the shifter has the codes that Farrell is working on, they’ll be able to simply wait until the guns are in place, walk in and take them all out with no trouble.  Morrik was using this buyback as a way to publicize the new security software.  It’s supposed to be fool proof, and Farrell and Marshall were the ones making it that way.”  
  
“So they took Marshall, got his memories,” and Sam could see that Dean wasn’t happy with that.  He hated shifters with a passion and Sam understood the vehemence.  “then he goes after the guns.  He can sell them to whatever low life he wants and get out quick, cash in hand, and take on whatever new identity he wants.”  
  
Sam nodded.  
  
“I think we need to talk to Farrell again.”

 

**

 

They didn’t wait to knock when they got to hacker’s apartment. They could hear something happening inside and the hallway was full of neighbors, staring at the door like it was unusual. “Get back to your rooms,” Sam glared at them all, pulling on his full height to give him the authority they would listen too. They did quickly. Dean didn’t bother with the pick, but kicked hard at the bolt. The wood around it splintered away from the brunt force and they were scrambling into the room. 

 

Farrell was standing in the center of the room, blood dripping from a cut lip.  His eyes flashed up at the newcomers.  At his feet was McClane, crawling on his stomach to put some distance between himself and the other man.  Sam could see blood on his face and the way he moved showed signs of a bad beating. 

It was so close to what he’d seen when he and Dean had gone to help Becky and Zach, he didn’t doubt it was a shifter for a moment.  He had his gun up and aimed at the creature before it could take a step forward. 

“We know what you are,” Dean said, his voice relaying the depth of his hatred for shifters.

The shifter smiled, looking from Dean to Sam and back again.  “We know what you are too.”

“Just tell us where Farrell is.”  Sam said, keeping his voice steady.

The creature took a step back and Sam knew he was going to run.  He pulled the trigger but the shifter threw himself to the side.  He rolled behind the couch and even as Dean was moving around the side to try to stop it, the shifter jumped through the window.

“God damn it!”  Dean cursed as they flew to the window, watching the shifter rolling on the ground outside.  He stumbled to his feet and Sam felt Dean moving away, through the door and back down the hallway. 

“What the fuck?”  He heard McClane behind him, heard the uneven shuffle of his feet as he came up behind Sam. 

The shifter looked back up at them, gave a small salute and a wide grin, then ran north.  Sam only had to wait a few minutes before Dean was down at street level looking for the shifter.  Sam stuck his head out the window.  “Dean!  North to the park.”  Dean raised his hand in acknowledgment then took off without waiting for Sam. 

Sam turned around to follow his brother but McClane was standing there, eyes hard and stance immovable.  “Where are you going?”

“Dean needs back up.”

“Let’s go then.  You can tell me what’s happening on the way.”

“No offense, but you can barely move man.”

McClane shook his head, giving Sam a small smile.  “I’ve had worse.”

Sam looked at him for a minute, but gave up the fight.  It was keeping him from getting to Dean and he doubted the cop would let it go.  “Yeah, come on.”

 

They didn’t talk as they ran, though Sam was surprised the guy was able to keep up.  In all his time as a hunter he’d rarely seen a civilian able to keep moving  after a beating like that.  Even trained professionals weren’t used to dealing with that level of pain.  They were used to having back up and being able to put the load down, to rest and recover, while someone else picked up the load.  Whoever McClane was, Sam figured he’d had to do without back up a few times.

“Just go over and talk to him, she said.”  McClane was mumbling angrily under his breath as they ran.  “He’s sensitive John, he’s insecure, you hurt him and I’ll end you John.  Hurt him, Hah!” 

Sam pulled to a stop, raising a hand to get McClane to stop with him.  “Dean,” he indicated where his brother was walking up to join them.

Dean just shook his head.  “I lost him Sammy.”

Sam didn’t say anything, but he pulled his silver knife out of his inner jacket pocket and held it out.  Dean rolled his eyes, but after the last time they’d agreed this needed to be done.  Dean took the blade in his hand and let it slice the skin, holding his hand up for Sam to see that there was no reaction.

“What the hell?”

“Just making sure he is who he says he is.”  Sam said, taking the blade and slicing his own hand.  He held it up for Dean to see and shrugged his head towards McClane.  “He was with me the whole time.  No way a shifter could have switched places with him.”

Dean nodded.  “Alright.  Let’s go then.”

“Wait.  First, what the hell are you talking about, and where do you think you’re going?”

Sam sighed as Dean shook his head, already scanning the ground for what they wanted.  “The thing in the room with you wasn’t Matt, it was a shape shifter.”

“A werewolf?”

“No,” Sam said, trying to hide his impatience.  “A werewolf is something else.  This shape shifter can take the form of any person it wants.  He took the shape of Matt’s friend Barry and now he’s going after Matt.  We think it’s got to do with the security program he was working on for the gun buy back.  The thing has got to be underground by now though.  They tend to stick to solitary lairs and the sewers are a good way to get from place to place without being seen.”

He could see that McClane was trying to take it all in, but it was a lot.

“If I hadn’t seen him jump I still wouldn’t believe it.”

“You think he’d have beat you up like that?”

“No, he loves M- he loves me.  It’s just easier to think he was capable of that than to think there are monsters in the world.”

Sam nodded in understanding.  “We’ll find him.  Shifters have to keep their victims alive.”

“So, the sewers?”  Sam nodded and McClane gave him a half smile.  “Let’s get down there then.”

 

The sewers were as pleasant as ever.  He’s not sure when he lost the ability to throw up over the stench, but he was grateful for it.  McClane was following a little slower than Sam would have liked, but he was trooping on anyway.  Dean kept turning his head to the side trying to keep his lunch down.  His gag reflex had always been tied closely to his sense of smell and Sam couldn’t help himself. 

“Doing alright there Dean?”

Dean didn’t bother to answer, but glared back at him.  Sam smiled at Dean’s back, following as they made their way into one of the central hubs. 

“Sammy, take a look.”

Dean stopped and Sam stopped at his brother’s side, looking down to the left where an offshoot led back towards Farrell’s place.  There were two piles of skin on the ground, neither looked too new. 

“God, that is just gross.”  Dean shook his head in disgust.

“You think that’s gross?  You should try having it ripped from your body sometime.”  Farrell stepped out from the corridor, a small doorway that Sam had missed as he’d caught sight of the skins. 

Sam pulled his gun up, aware that Dean was doing the same thing, when something spun him around.  He blocked a fist, but then a hand was caught in his hair and his head was bashed against the wall.  The last thing he saw as he began to slip into unconsciousness was McClane standing over him with a vicious smile.

 

 

Matt heard the scuffle outside and he closed his eyes, praying it wasn’t what he thought it was.  The shifters came back into the room and he had a moment of relief when it wasn’t McClane, but the two men from the diner.  Sam and Dean Winchester.  He didn’t understand the story behind it all, but the shape shifters were determined to destroy the brothers.  They’d been ranting about them ever since they’d taken Matt.

His look alike tied Dean up and started looking around, suddenly aware that something wasn’t right.  “Where’s the other one?”

The shifter looked at Matt and his mouth went dry.  Closing his eyes, he ignored the panic that welled up, managing to stifle the cry of pain as the shifter grabbed him roughly by the shoulders.  “Where is he?”

Matt looked at the empty chair McClane had been tied to and shrugged.  “I don’t know man.  He said something about pizza.”

He got smacked across the face but the McClane double stopped the next blow.  “Come on.  He won’t have left Matt here.  He’s still in the tunnels.”

“Can you find him?”

The other shifter tilted his head sideways, and then jerked up in pain.  Shaking his head, he looked back at Matt.  “No, the memories are too fresh yet.  I’ll keep trying, but we know he’s here.  No way he’s going to get away when his lover is still here.  We need to find him before he causes any trouble.”

“You think he’s any trouble for us?”

“Oh yeah.  McClane is all kinds of crazy with a hero complex to boot.  Let’s change though.  If he sees Sam and Dean it’ll give us time to get close to him.”

Matt watched them walk away, then turned his attention to the other two men in the maintenance room with him.  Sam was starting to come around, letting out soft moans of pain.  He could see blood dripping down his temple in a slow trickle.  He looked at Dean though and the other man’s eyes were wide open.

“Well, at least we know where you are now.”  Dean said softly.  “Any ideas about McClane?”

Matt shook his head.  “He got untied but heard them coming back before he could get to me.  He threw the tarp back over his chair hoping it would buy him a few minutes.  They’re so caught up in catching you that they didn’t notice it when they came back.”

“Caught up in me?”

“You and Sam.  They said they wanted to make you suffer.”

“How the hell do they even know us?”

“St. Louis?”

“What?”

“They said they needed to get you back for St. Louis.”

“Fuck.” 

Matt looked over to Sam, the one word laden with more than just pain from his injury. 

“We didn’t talk to the shifter in Milwaukee, but what if the… I don’t know… the psychic connection between the shifters goes farther than we knew Dean?”  Sam asked.  “What if they are connected to one another?”

Dean tilted his head to the side, looking slightly up as if to think about it.  “Maybe.  We know they have some sort of psychic ability to dig through their victim’s memories.  Why not that?”

“It would explain how they know about us.”

“Or how they even found each other.  It’s not like shifters are all that common.”

“Too common for my tastes,” Sam said with a shrug.

“It you boys are done reminiscing, how about we cut you loose?”

“McClane!”  Matt jerked his head around to look over his shoulder.  McClane was right behind him, already untying his hands.  “They went looking for you.”

“Yeah kid, saw them go past,” he looked at the other two men.  “They look like you now.”      

“Great.  Now they can frame me for another murder.”

McClane looked up but Matt felt the ropes loosen up and he pulled free of the restraint. 

McClane looked Matt over as he stood up and Matt felt the concern that McClane was never quite able to express.  He nodded, giving a small, half smile to let his lover know he was good.  McClane’s response was to hand a gun to him.  His fingers lingered a little too long for just a hand off, but Matt took comfort in the touch.

When McClane took a step towards Dean, Matt kept the gun in hand, ready in case the brothers tried anything.

“What the hell?  You know we aren’t shifters.”  Dean’s voice was angry and Matt could understand that, except that they didn’t have any idea who Sam and Dean were.  They weren’t shifters, but they weren’t normal every day citizens either.

“No you’re not,” John said as he untied Dean’s hands first.  “but we don’t know what you are, do we?  The freaks want to hurt you pretty bad.  You wanna explain that?”

“Let me untie Sammy, and I’ll explain it all.”

McClane nodded and Dean moved over to his brother.  “We came across two other shape shifters before.”  He said as he worked on the knot.  “We ended up killing one after he took my face, got me wanted for murder the son of a bitch.”

“Let it go Dean.”

“He drove my car Sam.”

“Let it go.”

Matt wanted to laugh because the banter was so natural to the two men, like being held at gun point in the sewers after they’d been tied up by shape shifters wasn’t anything so far out of the ordinary that it could stop them.  He felt a little bubble of panic welling up and he let out a small laugh because it was that or swallow the panic and wait for it to overwhelm him.

“Anyway,” Dean continued.  “We met another  that was robbing banks.  Not the same M.O. so we didn’t think they knew about each other.  The suicides were a common factor but that seemed more a matter of necessity than a commonality between the creatures.”

Sam’s hands were free and he flexed his arms for a moment.  “Might not be that simple now though.  If they knew about us from St. Louis then there is a chance that they know more.”

“What do you mean?”

“They took Dean’s shape, so they had his memories.”

“You’re saying that thing knows things about me?”

“Yeah, about both of you.  When they take your shape they can get your memories too.”  Dean explained.

McClane shook his head.  “I should have stayed in bed this morning.”

Matt bit his bottom lip, but shook his head as Dean moved to the door, peering out into the sewers.  “That’s what I said this morning.”

McClane smiled back at him and Sam let out a small laugh as well. 

“Think we all should have.”  Sam said when they looked at him.

The small amount of repose they had between them died off as Dean came back.  “Time to go topside.”

“And let these guys go?”

“We don’t have any weapons.” Sam pointed out.

“I’ve got my gun.  Should be enough.”

“Unless you decided to load it with silver, you might as well have a pea shooter.  It’s not going to do a damn thing.”  Dean said.  “We can get back to the motel and resupply, then come back for them.”

McClane looked back at him and then to the brothers.  “Alright.  But I’ll lead the way.”

Dean nodded and then McClane took his gun back from Matt, leading the way out the door.  Sam followed right behind him and Dean motioned Matt through after that, leaving Dean at the back.

He’d never been what anyone would consider graceful, but moving through the tunnels with the other men left him feeling clumsy and loud.  Even Sam, towering above them all, moved with a fluid grace that belied his size.  Matt stumbled through the tunnels, doing his best to stay small and silent while the others guided the way.

 

“This is where you’re staying?”  McClane asked as they opened the door to the motel room.

“Hunting’s not exactly for the jet setting crowd.  The pay is crap.”  Dean said as he dropped the bag onto his bed.

Sam watched the others, taking in the way McClane stayed close to Matt and the way the computer guy seemed to settle into what they were doing.  He wasn’t sure what sort of history the two had, but it didn’t take a lot to figure it was something traumatic.  It was the only way Sam could picture the two of them getting together.

Sam found his second gun in his backpack and pulled it out, still silently fuming about the shifters taking his favorite.  It was the first gun he’d ever chosen for himself, Dean taking him out for his sixteenth birthday to pick it out.  He still didn’t know how Dean got it for him and he’d never asked, but it wasn’t a hand me down or something John just forced into his hand to learn.  It was his and it was his first.  He wanted it back damn it.

He took the gun and walked to the bed, pulling out the clip and handing it to Dean.  Dean opened the bag and pulled out two more clips, handing one to Sam before he double checked the new clip, sliding it into place.

“You always walk around armed to rob a bank?” McClane asked as he watched them pass the gun back and forth.

“Except when we actually are robbing a bank.”  Sam tried to make light of the situation and Dean smiled at him for a second.  Ronald’s death in Milwaukee had played havoc with Dean’s  psyche for a while after the fobbed bank job where they’d met their second shifter, but he’d come to terms with that death eventually.  Just like Dean always did.  No matter what Sam sometimes said about his brother’s emotional capacity, he was in awe at the way Dean felt so much empathy with people and still managed to do the job. 

“You rob banks?”  Farrell asked, taking a seat at the table.  His voice was steady but his eyes were wide again.

“No, but we got caught up in what the FBI thought was a bank robbery.  We went into the bank without any weapons and… it was a mess.”  Dean finished with his gun and pulled out the box of silver bullets.  He handed it to McClane and the other man nodded, taking the box to the table.  He emptied his clip and started to fill it again with silver bullets since they didn’t have a clip that would fit. 

“Matt, you alright?”  McClane asked softly.

“Yeah, yeah,” he looked up from the table top where he’d been staring.  “Of course.  Give me a gun and tell me where to point, right?”

Dean looked over at him and Sam could see the skepticism in the look.  “I think it might be better if you stayed behind.”

“What?”  Both Matt and McClane spoke at the same time.

“We can take care of this on our own.  You don’t need to get involved any further,” Sam offered.  “In fact, it just makes it harder since it’s just that many more bodies the shifters can take.

“I’m going after that thing,” McClane said softly, but there was nothing pliant or weak in his voice.  He wasn’t going to be left behind.

“Me too.”

“Matt,”

“No John.”  Farrell sat up straighter in his chair and looked the cop in the eye.  “No body else right?” 

Matt looked at the room they were sitting in, at the guns on the bed and then at Sam and Dean, his eyes openly conveying a sense of acceptance.  Sam felt staggered by the weight of it, but the intensity of the other man’s faith that they were on the right side of things.

McClane followed his line of sight and then looked back at Matt like he was debating within himself.  He finally nodded.  “Yeah.  No body else.”

Matt’s smile was hesitant, but when McClane gripped his knee with one hand, he smiled brighter.  Shaking his head, he looked down and then up again.  “It figures, you know.”

“What’s that?”

“I’m at the wrong place and the wrong time?   And I’m surrounded by that fucking guy.”

McClane laughed.  “No heroes here.”

“Nope, just that fucking guy who can’t give up because there’s no one else.”

Sam looked at his brother and Dean shrugged.  “Wow.  Sounds like the story of our lives.”

He didn’t know what the look that passed between Matt and McClane was, but he saw the fond smile on the cop’s face and knew that Dean’s comment had meant something more to them. 

“We ready to do this?”  Dean asked, bringing the focus back to him.

“Yeah.”  McClane said, handing his gun to Matt.  Matt took it and stood, taking a deep breath as he did.

When McClane walked over to Dean and held his hand out, Dean only took a moment to wait for Sam’s nod before he reached into the bag and loaded another gun with a silver clip.  He handed it to McClane. 

“Come on Sammy.”  He said, stepping over to the door.  “Let’s go kill this evil son of a bitch.”

 

They moved through the sewers quickly, but when they got back to the main room there was nothing to find.  “You think they’ve set up someplace else?”  Sam asked.

“I don’t think so,” Dean said as he continued to look around the room.  “They want to catch us, they want to hurt us.  They’re not gonna do that if we don’t know where they are.”

“Then what?”

“My guess is that they’re out there looking for us.”

“What’s the next move then boys?”  McClane asked.

“We go back out, wait at the park I chased the one through.  They’ll be watching for us.”

“And you’re good with being bait?” 

“Won’t be the worst bait we’ve used.”  Sam said with a sigh.  He hated to think about some of the things they’d done in the course of the hunt, but they’d never lost an innocent as bait yet.  They did have a nasty habit of getting hurt when they were the bait though.

“Sam and I can take the north side of the park, and you guys hang back and watch for the shifters.”

  
They got to the topside but the journey wasn’t any faster.   They were still on the lookout for the creatures and it slowed them down.  More so because of Matt in their midst.  Sam admired his determination and while he held the gun like he knew how to use it, he didn’t move with the same ease that Dean or McClane did.  Sam understood.  Someone had shown Matt how to use a gun, but he’d never really been trained for the situation behind it, had never had the familiarity with creeping through tunnels and dark corners to learn the fluidity that came with practice.  It had taken Sam a long time to learn it himself and even then, it had only happened when Dean had been taken from them.  His determination to get Dean back had overruled all his other thoughts and feelings about their lifestyle and the hunt.

They were barely out of the tunnels when McClane’s phone rang.  “McClane,” he took the call and Sam watched the pain that crossed his features before it was replaced with determination.  “Lucy, where are you?”

The cop was shaking his head.  “No, Luce don’t try to make it home.  Go to the nearest-“

“Then do it Luce.  If you knew what I was going to say then just-“

“Luce?  Lucy?” 

Matt stepped closer to the other man, leaned in close enough that he could probably hear the conversation.  He took a step back though as McClane’s head snapped up.  “Oh my god.”

“You listen to me.  You let my daughter go.”  His whole body tensed and Sam watched him struggle to get his voice under control.  “Damn it!”  He screamed, not bothering to keep his voice off the phone.  “Just so you know asshole, I am going to find you and when I’m done, there won’t be enough of your body left to identify.”

Dean moved to Sam’s side and they watched the man hang up his phone, watched the way Matt stood close, one hand hesitantly clasping McClane’s shoulder.

“McClane,” he said softly.  “John, we’ll get her right?  Kill the son of a bitch and get her out or get her out and kill the son of a bitch?”

McClane nodded and looked back at Sam and Dean.  “They said they had something to take care of, then they’d be back for you two.”

Sam looked at Dean and then back at Matt and McClane.  “The warehouse.”

“What warehouse?”

“We think the shifters were targeting you and Barry Miller for a reason.  He was working on coding for Morrik Enterprises.”

“What?”

Sam nodded.  “We think the shifters are planning to use the code he wrote along with your code to hack into the warehouse where the recent buyback was holding the guns.”

“They could sell the guns to the highest bidder,” McClane supplied.

“They’re moving the guns in two days.”  Matt said, rubbing his hand over his face.  “Tomorrow more men will be moved in to do an inventory to make sure all the guns are there and they’ll be moved the next day.”

“So they need to hit it today.”  Dean said.

“Yeah.”

“Let’s go get Lucy then.”  McClane said.  He didn’t look back at them, but made his way out of the park and back to where the Impala was waiting for them.

 

**

 

The warehouse was exactly what they expected it to be; high tech with very few armed men to ensure the safety. It was what Morrik Enterprises was doing it all for after all, the promotional benefits of working with the police force outweighed the cost of setting the warehouse up with the state of the art technology. They first two guards were found slumped over the front console and it didn’t look like they’d put up much of a fight. Matt tried not to think about it too much, how one of the creatures could have gotten close enough to disarm them while the other waited with Lucy on the sidelines.  
  
A hand on his shoulder made him look up and he realized that McClane and Dean were already moving past the guard station. He nodded to Sam and walked after them. They came to a large door and Sam looked at it for a second before looking back at Dean. "This is beyond me Dean."  
  
McClane smiled back at Matt. "Looks like you're up kid."  
  
Matt smiled back at him, trying to stop the nervous flutter in his stomach for McClane's faith in him. He stepped up to the system, ignoring Sam and Dean as he opened his bag. He swiped the dummy key card and flipped open the keyboard, scanning the small monitor for the right sequences. When he saw the code he'd written he typed in the kill sequence. He could see that it had been used earlier and then reset. He hated knowing that the shifter had used his knowledge to bypass the system but at least he was there to stop it. He wasn't sure how he'd gotten into this position again, trying to stand up against forces outside of his understanding but there he was. McClane wouldn't have thought less of him for staying behind and Sam and Dean had expected him to, but Matt knew himself too well. As much as he didn't want to be a part of all this again, he couldn't leave Lucy in danger. He couldn't let Barry's killer go free when his skills might be able to catch them, human or not.  
  
He let out a sigh of relief as the door swished open. Dean pushed straight in and McClane was right on his tail. Sam shook his head, a fond smile on his face as he looked at Matt.  
  
"Why don't we let them think they're being all badass until we get to the doors that actually matter?"  
  
Matt let out a small laugh at that. Sam was right. Even if he didn't know the layout he would have known this wasn't the weapons store because of the simplicity of the security.  
  
He dropped everything back in his bag and closed it quickly. He'd never been really big on that sort of efficiency of movement, but the fire sale had changed all that. He could see that Sam moved with the same effective, quick movements that McClane and Dean did.  
  
Sam nodded him through the door and Matt knew he was being place in the center, as safe as he could be in the circumstances. He might not like to think of himself as fragile, but he knew he was the civilian they were going to try to protect. He just hoped McClane hadn't delivered a 'protect him or I kill you' directive.  
  
Sam followed close behind Matt and pulled the gun back out of the bag. McClane had taught him to use it properly after the fire sale, his only comment after his first attempt was a shake of the head and a mumbled "Jesus Christ how is Lucy still alive?"  
  
  
As they passed through the doorway they left the office areas and their polished interiors behind them. They moved through the bare hallway and found McClane and Dean stopped at another metal door. They stepped aside so he could see it but he just shook his head. "It's already been disabled."  
  
"Then why won't it open?"  
  
"Someone locked it?" He pointed to the locking mechanism. "We need a key."  
  
Sam pushed the gun into the waist of his pants and then grabbed something from his inner jacket pocket.  
  
"You boys do this sort of thing a lot?" McClane asked with a small grin.  
  
Matt knew the smile though. It was the one McClane had given him when he'd talked an operator into starting a stopped car so they could hunt down the bad guys. It was exasperation and amusement and more than a hint of admiration.  
  
Dean gave them a crooked smile. "This life has some interesting skill sets."  
  
"I'm sure it does."  
  
The door opened before Dean could answer back. "Good work Sammy," Dean said as he pushed past him and through the door.  
  
Sam stood up, slipping the lock pick back into his pocket before he took his gun and motioned Matt through.  
  
It was the last hallway, the metal gate at the end of the row opening up into the main area of the warehouse. He didn't know what Barry had done to make the door secure but Matt had a whole bag of tricks to pull out of his sleeves and he had known Barry pretty well, could recognize the man's work without being told it was his. If there was anyone that could decode his work, it was Matt.  
  
That didn't make it easy.  
  
He took a deep breath as he approached the last door, already pulling the equipment he needed out of his bag.  
  
He plugged into the system and then took a minute to feel the code as it moved through his head. The current of the code pulled at him and he let it, following it where it would lead. It was how he worked, how he managed to find his way in and out of other people's loopholes and slop. Barry wasn't sloppy though so it took time to feel the code snap in place for him.  
  
On instinct he began to rearrange the code, never removing, just redirecting and reforming the original intent. When he hit the last key he took a step back just as the last door opened for them.  
  
Sam looked at him, aware enough of the skills to understand what a feat he'd just performed. Dean and McClane just waited as he packed up again, his hand steady on the gun even if it belied his inner turmoil.  
  
"Ready?" McClane asked quietly as he caught Matt's eye.  
  
Matt looked at the other men, saw the determination in their eyes and closed his own. "That fucking guy," he mumbled before looking up at his lover. "Yeah. Alright John. I'm ready."  
  
McClane didn't wait for another word. He and Dean slid through the door, danger and death in their wake. He followed through without hesitation, Sam moving silently at his back.  
  
“Lucy!”  
He heard McClane’s yell before he saw her. He had to flinch back memories of other times, of a bullet in his knee and McClane bleeding on the floor, of a gunshot he thought went through her skull as he tried to think a way out of a maniac’s demented, and expert, plans.  
  
“Drop the gun!” The voice was Sam’s but it came from ahead of them to the left and he knew Sam was behind him.  
  
“Damn it,” the real Sam said behind him, “hate it when they look like me.”  
  
They came to the end of the hallway and watched as Dean and McClane were at a standoff with the shifters who still looked like Sam and Dean. Lucy’s hands were tied behind her as she sat on a stool in front of a pallet of guns, blood dripping from her chin. He could imagine the things she might have said before they’d been pissed enough to gag her. They were just lucky they were using her as leverage against John, otherwise she’d have been long dead. Lucy could try the patience of a saint and the shifters seemed to be anything but patient.  
  
“Let my daughter go you son of a bitch.”  
  
“Put your weapons down or I put a bullet in her,” Dean-shifter said as he walked up behind her. “Oh, I know what you’re thinking. Put a bullet in her and the deal is over, right? Wrong. I know all sort of wonderful ways to hurt her John, all kinds of ways to make her bleed without killing her. Thanks to Dean’s time in hell, I’ve got a full catalogue of interesting information and ideas.”  
  
Matt watched Sam bend at his side, putting the gun on the floor, his hands help in front of him. “Just let the girl go. No one has to get hurt.”  
  
Matt dropped his weapon as well, quickly followed by McClane. Dean was the last hold up and it wasn’t until the Dean-shifter smiled and leaned forward, dropping his hand into Lucy’s hair and pulling her head to one side that Dean gave in.  
  
“We didn’t want to hurt anyone,” the shifter said as he looked at them. “We just wanted to be left alone, but no one would do that would they? No one would let us be. We were freaks and instead of letting us go, they hunted us down. We have a right to survive. We have a right to live our lives.”  
  
“This isn’t living your lives. This is murder,” Sam countered.  
  
“Payback.” The Sam-shifter said as he walked up behind the other shifter. “We deserve a little for the way our lives were taken from us,” he said, looking at Dean and Sam. “And then we found out about the two of you. You see, we knew that you’d killed one of our kind. It wasn’t that much of an issue really, because we didn’t know him and we didn’t know what he’d done so we didn’t think anything of it. But then, we started hearing about you in the thoughts of the other one, the bank robber. When you showed up here we knew you were going to be trouble. We thought about killing you first, but we decided to make you like us, hunted. Only you deserve to be hunted down,” the shifter spat the words. His eyes looked over at Dean and then at the Dean-shifter, “Oh, I can understand the attraction. After all, Dean is beautiful to look at, isn’t he? I can’t say I’ll mind getting to fall into bed with him later tonight.”  
  
His hand caressed the Dean-shifter’s face, but with one hand still in Lucy’s hair none of them dared to move against them.  
  
“But the difference is,” The Dean-shifter said, looking at Sam. “I’m not his brother. You hunt down creatures like us, call us freaks, but what are you? Tainted with demon blood? Fucking your brother? Everyone you love dies bloody, and yet they let you live among them. The only reason they hunt us and not you Sam, is because you can hide it better than we can.”  
  
Matt felt his stomach falling as they spoke. Neither Sam nor Dean denied anything the shifters said and that alone told Matt the truth. He turned his head just slightly and he could see Sam’s jaw, clenched tight.  
  
“Now, where is that knife of yours Sammy?” Dean-shifter held his hand out as he took a few steps closer. The other shifter dropped back behind Lucy and Sam pulled a knife out of a holster on his ankle. The silver blade gleamed in the light as Sam kicked it towards the shifter. It landed a few feet in front of Lucy and neither shifter seemed interested in grabbing it.  
  
“Good boy Sammy. No wonder Dean likes you so much. Guess there’s more to it than that though, huh?”  
  
“You have the weapons, just let the girl go and no one else has to get hurt.” McClane said softly.  
  
The shifters smiled, neither warm nor welcoming as they looked at McClane.  
  
“Oh no, I don’t think we’ll be able to leave you alive. Your little bitch here told us all about the ways you’d be coming for us.”  
  
Lucy began mouthing off again and even through the gag Matt could tell she was saying things she shouldn’t. She couldn’t help herself, too much of her father in her to let someone think they intimidated her. The Sam-shifter pushed her, causing her to fall off the stool. She caught herself with a small stumble but then she turned to glare at him, continuing in her unintelligible diatribe.  
  
“Lucy!” He tried to warn her before they did anything else, but then Sam-shifter was back handing her. She fell to the floor and twisted quickly to her back, glaring at the creatures. He understood what she was doing then, understood as he saw something silver flash under her.  
  
“Stop it!” He screamed at the shifters, trying to draw their attention away from her. “Leave her alone! She didn’t hurt any of you. She was just as innocent as you were. She didn’t hurt anyone!”  
  
The shifters stopped and looked at one another. “No,” the Dean-shifter said as he looked at Matt. “but we don’t need a reason anymore. The more people think of you as a freak, the easier it is to become one. Besides, Lucy has a lot coming to her. You have no idea the mouth that girl has.”  
  
Matt snorted. “Yeah, I do. And to be honest,” they were pissed as he spoke, but he had to do this, had to give Lucy a chance and he could see her cutting away the last of her bindings. “I’d be worried if I were you. She’s a bitch when she’s been tied up. The last time this happened to us, she shot a guy in the foot to get her Dad a gun. You should see what she would do to give McClane the shot he needs.”  
  
“You’ve got to give Luce that.” McClane said from behind him.  
  
He felt Sam-shifter’s fist against his skull and fell back at the pain. There was a moment of silence and then he heard the other’s scrambling, followed by John’s voice.  
  
“Yippi-kay-ay, motherfucker!”  
  
He looked up to see Dean-shifter falling to his knees, Sam’s knife in his back where Lucy had planted it. The Sam-shifter was taken down by gun shot; McClane, Dean, and Sam all firing on the shifters.  
  
There was a moment of silence, ugly and glaring in the wake of the gun fire, but then Lucy let out a small sob and Matt looked up to see her looking at him. He didn’t know what his eyes showed, but Lucy ran to him, wrapping her arms around his waist and holding him tight. He wrapped her up in his embrace, one hand stroking her hair as he whispered soothing words into her ear.  
  
He watched McClane’s expression harden slightly and then the way his lover mentally shrugged it off. Matt closed his eyes against it; against the feeling of inadequacy he always felt when McClane did that. Lucy shivered against him and a minute later he found a blanket being folded around them by Dean.  
  
Matt nodded his thanks. He watched Dean walked back over to Sam and suddenly it didn’t matter anymore, what the shifters had said. No matter what they might be doing or how far outside the boundaries of normal society they got, they had risked their lives for Lucy, they had risked each other for someone else and that said more about who they were than whatever rules they decided to break.  
  
It took him a minute to realize that Sam and Dean were leaving. They talked in hushed voices, but it was clear that they were talking to McClane about something.  
  
“Luce,”  
  
She looked up, no tears but red rimmed eyes and he knew she’d managed to hold it all back. She wasn’t the type to show her pain, no matter how bad it was. When he nodded over towards the others she looked, then let loose enough that they could walk over and join the others.  
“It’s not like anyone would believe what we have to say anyway,” Sam was saying as he and Lucy stopped next to McClane.  
  
“Maybe not, but I sure hate to see you guys taking the brunt of this thing.”  
  
“Who knows?” Sam said, a smile crossing his face as he talked. “Maybe if they keep finding shifters with our faces they’ll start to think there’s something funny going on and they’ll stop hunting Sam and Dean Winchester.”  
  
Dean snorted and McClane laughed. “Yeah, that’ll be anyday now.”  
  
There was a slight lull in the conversation and Matt took his opening there. “Thank you guys.” He said, holding out his hand to them. “Maybe no one else will ever know what happened to Barry, but I know now. And the things that did it are dead. Thanks for that.”  
  
Sam shook his hand and then Dean walked up, giving him a clap on the back. “You’re not too bad for a geek.”  
  
Lucy pressed a kiss to his cheek and Matt felt his cheeks turning red, just like she knew they would when she did it. “Not too bad at all hacker boy.”  
  
Before he could say anything she was sliding out of his embrace and pressing another kiss to Dean’s cheek. She followed it up with Sam and smiled at them both. “Thank you, for saving my life.”  
  
“And you say this job has no perks Sammy.”  
  
“Dean?”  
  
“Yeah John?”  
  
“Don’t make me kill you.”  
  
“Think you’d have to get in line.” Dean said, winking at Matt. Sam was glaring at his back and Matt couldn’t help but smile at the two.  
  
“Have a good trip, wherever you end up.” McClane threw out as the two started to walk away.  
  
Lucy walked over to her dad then and shook her head. “You do know how to get in trouble John.” She said softly.  
  
“Hey, wasn’t me this time. I was just looking out for Matt.”  
  
“Yeah, bang up job you did. He got kidnapped John. You have to take better care of him than that.”  
  
“Um, hello Lucy, right here.”  
  
She glared at him for a second then turned back on John. “What have I told you John? If you let something happen to that boy, you’d be a mess and I don’t want to have to deal with your sorry ass because you didn’t take care of the love of your life.”  
  
“Luce, it wasn’t my fault. How the hell am I supposed to protect him from shape shifters?” He paused as he crossed his arms. “Shape shifters Luce.”  
  
“Still here.”  
  
“Is that an excuse? Did you just say you couldn’t protect him because it was unknown? How many times have you faced terrorists? How many times have you done just that and come out just fine?”  
  
“Well I usually get shot so I wouldn’t say just fine.”  
  
“Yeah well you’re not shot this time.”  
“Lucy!”  
  
Matt shook his head as he stopped the two of them. Really. They were like children, only worse. If he told McClane or Lucy to go to their rooms they’d just ignore him, and possibly lock him up in his own.  
  
“I don’t know about the two of you,” Matt said as he took a step back, “but I just want to get home, get a shower, and sleep until I can forget this ever happened.”  
  
Lucy looked down, but it was McClane who nodded, coming up to him and smiling softly. “Yeah, come on.”  
  
  
The ride was quiet. Lucy seemed content to let her argument hang in the air between them and no one else had the energy to start it up again. When they dropped her off, she kissed them both and headed in, promising to call in the morning.  
  
McClane seemed fine with that and Matt wasn’t sure if it was because he knew Lucy was okay or if it was because he knew Matt wasn’t. He hated that thought, but it stuck with him all the same.  
  
He drifted off with Lucy gone, dozing in the passenger seat until McClane woke him with a soft shake. “Come on Matt, let’s go get some real sleep.”  
  
Matt opened his eyes and blinked a few times to make sure he was where he thought he was.  
  
“McClane?”  
  
“Yeah Matt?”  
  
“You gonna take me home?”  
  
“Later. You’re gonna crash here tonight, alright?”  
  
Matt nodded because while he’d been at McClane’s place before, it had never been overnight. Hell, it had never been for more than a few hours.  
  
“You sure?” Matt asked, knowing how much McClane protected their secret.  
  
“Jesus Matt, just get out of the car, alright?”  
  
He wasn’t mad though, Matt knew the tone of voice. McClane sounded upset, but more at himself than anything else. He didn’t know how to take that turn of events though so he just followed along with his wishes.  
  
  
McClane let him settle into the couch, but only long enough for him to start the shower. He shoved Matt back into the bathroom and had him stripped and under the running water in less than a minute. He’d watched McClane disappear from the bathroom then and his lover didn’t come back in until he turned the water off. Then he was dried and hustled into bed before he could say anything, at least anything that McClane would acknowledge.  
  
It wasn’t until McClane started stripping his own clothes off that Matt realized his lover was doing more than putting him to bed. He let his eyes close as McClane’s body dipped the bed, felt him moving closer until his arms were pulling Matt into his chest.  
  
He rolled with it, letting John’s hands pull his face up and into his waiting lips. It was soft and gentle, nothing like what he was used to. As much as he wanted to feel this, to know this sort of love making with John, he’d never asked for it. He’d been happy to get what he could from his lover, to take the warmth and strength and be content with that.  
  
When he opened his eyes, he was shocked but the look of vulnerability in his lover’s eyes. “John?”  
  
“You never call me that,” John said, his eyes drifting to Matt’s lip, to the bruise he knew was forming on his cheek. “I like when you call me John.” His fingers brushed Matt’s face and he felt lost in the sudden tenderness.  
“I’m no good at this Matt,” he continued, “I warned you about that in the beginning but you said you’d tell me when I was being an idiot.”  
  
“John, what are you talking about?”  
  
John shook his head and kissed him hard then, deep and passionate and it was all Matt could think about, the way John’s body felt pressed next to his.  
  
When John pulled away, he pressed one more kiss on Matt’s lips before looking him in the eye again. “Lucy was right. Not letting you get into any more trouble Matt. I don’t care if I have to sit on you, 24/7 to keep you safe. Do you know what would happen to me if I lost you?”  
  
“John,”  
  
“You don’t,” he didn’t give Matt the chance to answer. “You don’t and it’s my fault and you’re supposed to tell me when I’m an idiot Matt. Because this, is about the stupidest thing I’ve done.”  
  
Matt tensed and John immediately pulled him closer. “Not tell you Matt. Not tell you was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. But,” he dropped his hand to Matt’s jaw, his thumb stroking over the skin of his neck. “I love you Matt. You can’t leave me, alright? I love you.”  
  
He knew his eyes were wide, knew his mouth had dropped open like every bad movie moment ever filmed, but he couldn’t help it. The admission wasn’t something he’d ever expected to hear. Hell, he hadn’t dared dream of it. And yet, there it was. He wanted it to be real, wanted it to be something to hold onto, but he wasn’t sure if he could. He was just a hacker, just some computer guy with too much in his head and McClane was this amazing man, courageous and caring and too damn committed to other people’s safety and not his own.  
  
He was looking at Matt with those eyes though, open and vulnerable, emotion showing so plainly that he couldn’t help but see it. “Yeah, I’m not going anywhere John. Alright?” He asked as he pulled closer to his lover. “I love you too.”  
  
  
The Impala roared around them and Sam settled into the passenger seat, a stack of newspapers on the floor beneath his feet and the wind blowing freely through the car. They’d been on the road for a full three hours since the shifters had been killed and there was no sign of pursuit. Not that they’d expected to be chased down after that, but you never knew how things would turn out.  
  
McClane and Farrell had been an odd enough couple, especially when you teamed them up with McClane's daughter Lucy, but they’d been alright after all. “You think they’re going to be okay?” He asked his brother.  
  
Dean looked over at Sam, but didn’t answer. Five minutes later they were shuffling their bags into the local motel, their room decorated in the most horrendous collection of roosters known to man. Dean loved it. He’d taken one look at the room, grinned maliciously at Sam and winked. “That’s a lot of cock in one room.”  
  
Dean didn’t let him ask again, but grabbed a shower. When he was out Sam did the same, letting the hot water soak away the worst of the sore spots. As hunts went, it wasn’t bad. No one had been hurt too seriously and the bad guys were dead. They were safe and clean now, resting in a motel with warm beds. When Sam walked out of the bathroom, Dean was just walking back in the door with dinner.  
  
They settled in to eat and neither made much noise until it was done. While Sam finished off the rest of his cole slaw Dean slid up on the bed and turned the television on, flipping through until he was satisfied that he was watching the tackiest thing available. Dean had a lifestyle to uphold after all and Sam had learned a long time ago not to fight him on it.  
  
When Sam settled on the bed next to him, Dean pulled him close, letting Sam rest his head against his shoulder. “Yeah Sammy,” he said softly. “I think they’ll be alright. McClane’s got his head on straight. Farrell doesn’t seem the type to jump overboard either.”  
  
“Yeah,” Sam said softly. “Hate shifters man. Can’t get it out of my head.”  
  
He didn’t say what but they both knew he’d be waking up for the next few nights, memories of Dean lying dead in his friend’s living room. No matter that it had been a shifter who had actually died, Sam still had time when the memory just seemed to be too real.  
  
“Don’t worry Sammy. I’m right here. Not going anywhere.”  
  
“You so sure about that Dean? Sometimes, the way you go after things… if you’ve got a death wish I’d like to know it.”  
  
Dean snorted. “Nah man. Just comes with the territory. I’m not gonna do something stupid Sam, not leaving you alone.”  
  
Sam nodded but there was something else he needed to say, something he knew his brother still had trouble believing. “Not leaving you either Dean.” He said, looking up.  
  
Dean’s eyes covered well, but Sam had seen the instance of disbelief and as much as he wished he could say he didn’t deserve that, he knew his own actions in the past had put it there. “I mean it Dean, I’m not leaving you.”  
  
Dean looked at him for a few minutes before he shook his head slowly. “Yeah, alright Sammy. You’re here. I got that.”  
  
Sam leaned up and kissed his brother’s lips, pressing in hard where he was normally gentle. It was only Dean he treated that way, but he had always know that his brother was the most precious thing in his life. He’d do anything to keep him safe, to keep him happy. With Dean’s hand fisting in his hair he smiled against his lips.  
  
“Love you Dean.” The words came out harsh with the passion that was running between them, but then Dean was pulling him up his body until Sam was covering him completely.  
  
Dean released his lips from another kiss and looked up at Sam. “Love you too Sammy, Jesus, love you too. Now, let’s see if we can make you forget about shifters for the rest of the night.”  
Sam didn’t know if Dean was able to keep him from dreaming about shifters because it wasn’t until early the next morning that he actually got to sleep. He passed out and when he woke, didn’t remember a damn dream.  
  
He sat next to his sleeping brother, sipping softly at the coffee he’d managed to snag from the front office and smiled. He didn’t know about much in the world, but he had his brother and he had this lifestyle. It wasn’t much, but like Matt and McClane had said. There was no one else, and as long as Dean was there by his side, he didn’t have any problem being that guy.

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
